The field of the invention relates generally to electric vehicles and, more particularly, to a security device that disables an electric vehicle when the electric vehicle is unexpectedly disconnected from a charging station by an unauthorized user.
At least partially in response to increasing fuel costs related to the use of conventional combustion engine vehicles, the use of electric vehicles has increased. Accordingly, energy demand has increased in the form of electrical energy used to charge batteries or other energy sources used in such vehicles. Moreover, with an increase in the number of electric vehicles being used by consumers, the need for electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) has increased throughout the world in order to provide energy to the electric vehicles.
With at least some known EVCS, a user can easily activate a unit at the station to start the flow of electrical energy into their electric vehicle by swiping a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag across a reader located on the unit. A charging time of an electric vehicle depends on various factors including, but not being limited to, environmental conditions, the size of the vehicle's battery, the charging level, the size of the charger for the battery, and/or the state of the charge of the battery when the vehicle is coupled to the EVCS. Depending on such factors, a typical charging time for an electric vehicle may be between approximately two hours to approximately eight hours in length. Because the charging process may be time-consuming, the user may leave the electric vehicle to perform other tasks and/or activities while the electric vehicle is charging. However, while the electric vehicle is left unattended to charge, a third party may attempt to disconnect the electric vehicle from the charging station in order to steal the electric vehicle.